75 Ball Bingo Explained

75 ball bingo is the most common kind of bingo in the USA and Canada. It is called 75 ball bingo because there are a total of 75 bingo balls having 75 different numbers. The bingo card is laid out in a 5 x 5 square so there are tons of different possibilities for bingo patterns. With more patterns there is more game variety and more fun. It is also an easy game to start out with if you haven’t played a lot of bingo before. Traditionally it was just the North American bingo halls offering 75 ball bingo, but it seems to be spreading around the world. We are seeing more and more UK bingo halls also offering 75 ball bingo games.

As mentioned the bingo card is laid out in a 5 x 5 square pattern. That means there are a total of 25 spaces on the card. To make the game more interesting the center space is the free space meaning that it is already filled in. Each of the 5 columns has a total of 15 different numbers and each column has a letter at the top. The letters B-I-N-G-O spell out the name of the game. Under the B you can find numbers 1 to 15. Under the I you can find numbers 16 to 30 and so on. This also helps the online bingo players to find the space faster.

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The bingo rules of 75 ball bingo, in its most basic form can be won by filling the spaces in a line, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally from corner to corner. At least 5 covered spaces are required to win. An example of a bingo pattern is the letter ‘O’. To win on this pattern the bingo player would need to fill in all the spaces horizontally across the top and bottom as well as vertically on each side. In effect creating a letter ‘O’. One of the big jackpot bingo games is the coverall game. In this game every space under the card must be covered. If it can be done in a certain number of calls than you are going to win big.

The 75 ball bingo game starts with the calling of the first number. The number on the ball is announced and all players check their cards. If they have the number called than they will daub the space where the number was. A short time later the next number will be announced. This process continues until someone calls bingo. The first person to call bingo wins, but it is possible for more than one person to call bingo on the same ball. If this is the case normally the jackpot will be split among all winning players.

Once you get good at keeping track of your numbers than you can try playing with multiple bingo cards. This is exactly the same game, just that you have to really pay attention, not to miss a call. Fortunately if you are playing bingo online and enable the auto-daub feature than you don’t need to worry about this. All of the spaces will be filled in for you by the computer program. This definitely makes life much easier when playing multiple cards.

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Some bingo players do have favorite numbers. As all numbers are generated randomly than there is no real advantage to this. But just like playing the lotto some people are superstitious and if it works for them, well hey why not?

The prizes for most bingo games are determined by the number of players in each bingo game. The more people than play bingo in a certain game the bigger the pot to be won. You can also often find special progressive jackpot games, like the coverall game described above. These big jackpots can be won if the winning card is completed within a certain number of balls (this number varies for each game). The jackpots increase in value with each card sold.